THE fire that broke out in the 15-storey Capital Siraj Centre Shopping Mall on Bayley Road in Dhaka on May 5 is disparaging, especially in the wake of a series of fires that have taken place in recent years. In the incident at hand, no casualties were reported perhaps because of the prompt response of firefighters. The fire broke out in the evening and nine fire engines could control the fire in an hour. Eighteen people were rescued from the rooftop. But a prompt response may not always be enough to avert disasters. Two months ago on March 3, four died in a fire in a six-storey building in Shahjadpur. The building housed a hardware store on the ground floor, a beauty parlour on the second and a hotel above. On February 29, 2024, a fire in Green Cozy Cottage, also on Bayley Road, left 46 people dead. The fires are by no means isolated incidents. At least dozens of major fires in 2010鈥�2023 left several hundred people dead.
All this shows persistent government failures to address structural risks and enforcement gaps in fire safety regulations. The main problem lies in the failure to enforce fire safety regulations which is the manifestation of ineffective governance. After every major fire, there are investigations, reports and recommendations. Yet, once public outrage subsides, it all gets back to square one. Official data of March 2024 show that only 134 restaurants in the capital had all the clearances from relevant authorities. The Dhaka south city authorities have recently revoked the trade licences of unauthorised rooftop restaurants set up flouting building plans. The move sparked outrage among the owners, who appear more emboldened by impunity than concerned about safety compliance. This resistance to regulation and the audacity to publicly defend unlawful operations show how the regulatory authorities often serve business interests rather than public welfare. Time and again, authorities have launched drives only in the aftermath of disasters. Yet, such drives are frequently incomplete, inconsistently enforced or quickly abandoned. If the measures that came forth had been put to action and sustained, the frequency and scale of fires could at least have significantly reduced.
Public agencies should, therefore, move beyond episodic drives and commit to long-term enforcement to prevent such incidents from recurring. The government should ensure that no business or building operates outside legal and safety frameworks. This includes taking legal action against public officials who facilitate or ignore such violations. Without holding both non-compliant businesses and negligent authorities accountable, any talk of fire safety would remain rhetorical.
